Cape Cod Foreclosure Rate Way Up

Originally Posted: 2/5/06, Updated Below: The number of foreclosure notices filed against Massachusetts homeowners last year reached their highest level since the housing bust of the early 1990s, as homeowners fell behind on their mortgages. In Barnstable County (Cape Cod) the number of foreclosures was up 47 percent since 2004.

Last year, there were almost 11,500 foreclosure filings in Massachusetts Land Court, where most notices are filed by banks and mortgage companies against the homeowners, according to ForeclosuresMass Corp., which compiles and tracks filings. That is a 32 percent increase from 2004, pushing the number of filings on record to its highest level since 1993, when a once-booming housing market was in a tailspin. The biggest increases were in Eastern Massachusetts.

Jeremy Shapiro, president of ForeclosuresMass, predicted filings would rise again this year, because many homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages will see their monthly payments begin to rise along with interest rates.

‘‘As we get into ‘06, ‘07, ‘08 and beyond, we’re going to see more folks whose rates adjust,” he said.—source

Update 12/14/06:
In an analysis released Dec. 12, 2006, the company ForeclosuresMass.com reported 838 foreclosure filings in Barnstable County from Nov. 1, 2005, to Oct. 31, nearly double the previous 12 months.

Statewide, there were 17,167 foreclosure filings during the same period, up 54 percent from the previous 12 months.

Cape Cod experienced the sharpest countywide increase across the state, according to the report. The towns of Sandwich, Bourne and Mashpee showed particularly severe spikes, all having more than twice the number of foreclosures and bank owned properties so far this year as they had last year, according to the report.

The spike in foreclosures on the Cape may be particularly high because of the region’s disparity between home prices and incomes, said Nancy Davison, vice president of operations for Housing Assistance Corp., which counsels people facing foreclosure. The Hyannis nonprofit estimates the Cape’s median home price at about $362,000 and the median income for a family of four at $65,800. source: Cape Cod Times

Update 2/22/08:
It may be a new year, but low sales volume, dropping prices and soaring foreclosure rates continued to plague the Cape and Islands real estate market in January, according to two reports released this week.

Foreclosure numbers continued to rise in the first month of the year, according to The Warren Group, a Boston-based real estate research and publishing company.

In Barnstable County, 45 foreclosures were completed in January 2008, compared with 17 foreclosures in the same period last year, a jump of 164 percent. Statewide, the average increase in the number of foreclosures over the same period was 128 percent.

Update 1/3/09:
Barnstable and Dukes counties have experienced sharper increases in foreclosures in the first 11 months of the year than any other part of the state, according to numbers released yesterday by The Warren Group, a Boston-based real estate data and publishing firm. On Cape Cod, 560 foreclosure deeds were filed through November, an increase of more than 85 percent from the same period last year.

In Dukes County, which includes Martha’s Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands, foreclosures jumped 175 percent during the same period. Eight foreclosure deeds were filed in the first 11 months of 2007; 22 foreclosures were completed during the same span this year. Statewide, foreclosures went up 65 percent through November, compared with the same period last year.